Marketers in Many Verticals Are Choosing Native
Recent research from mid-2014 reveals that native advertising is widely adopted across diverse verticals—including technology, media, travel, finance, and retail—with over 1,040 brands sponsoring editorial content on 100 digital publisher sites, highlighting a broad industry trend beyond just viral news and large consumer brands.
With comedian John Oliver’s tasteful takedown of native advertising still ringing in the ears of many digital advertisers and publishers, many have been wondering how common native advertising is today. Our recent native advertising research shows that native advertising is being embraced by digital publishers and advertisers across numerous publishing and advertising verticals – not just viral news sites and large consumer brands.
While the debate about native advertising continues unabated – whether or not poorly labeled native advertising is misleading to consumers – our data reveals that marketers are increasingly interested in sponsoring editorial content on digital publishers. Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz’s recent $50 million investment in BuzzFeed reinforces this emerging trend in advertising.
Between June and July 2014, we looked across a sample of 100 sites and found more than 1,040 different brands placing native ads. What is exciting is that the brands running native ad programs are from a very wide range of advertising categories.
To demonstrate the wide scope of native advertising, these were the top 10 categories of advertisers utilizing native in our index of consumer and b-to-b websites:
- 1.Technology
- 2.Media & Entertainment
- 3.Industry
- 4.Travel & Leisure
- 5.Professional Services
- 6.Financial & Real Estate
- 7.Retail/wholesale
- 8.Automotive
- 9.Food
- 10.Apparel & Accessories
We’re constantly monitoring what is happening in the industry as marketers and advertisers continue to adopt native advertising, so check back here soon for further research and commentary.
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